Course Structure

i Research training
The IGRS has run its programme of eight full-day Saturday Modern Foreign Languages research training workshops since 1999 (for the current programme, see: http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/postgraduate/igrs-research-training-programme.html); they are designed to be used alongside the online RT on PORT: http://port.igrs.sas.ac.uk/. These are supplemented for masters students by
• an intensive induction day focusing on masters-level preparation;
• two earmarked workshops for IGRS masters students on choosing a dissertation topic and on presentation skills;
• two library introduction days, at SHL and the BL;
• assessed oral presentations, given in June (at the start of dissertation work) to peers & staff.

In addition to this provision, students will be offered work-shop based RT classes for pairs or small groups, earmarked to particular tasks to be completed and discussed.

ii Essays 
Students will be supervised one-to-one by one or two supervisor/s across the first two terms of the academic year. Topics will be agreed between the student and the supervisor/s, and will serve as a grounding for the dissertation, ie normally the first essay will be a study of an area (eg French romanticism, Italian avant-garde, German thought) and the second essay focused on a narrower part of the field, normally with a specified theoretical angle; the dissertation, at the highest level of focus, will be selected from this sub-field.

iii Dissertation
• The dissertation will be 35-40,000 words long. It will be supervised by one or two supervisors from April to August (Full Time) or from October to August (Part Time). It will focus on a field that can be developed thereafter into a PhD topic, subject to satisfactory outcome in the MRes degree. In late May/early June all students will give an oral presentation on their dissertation topic.